Rushin House Caravan Park Review

Rushin House is a small 5-star family run Caravan Park that is situated just outside the quaint village of Belcoo. It lies right on the border just inside Northern Ireland and it is 13 miles from Enniskillen and 25 miles from Sligo. The well-equipped park overlooks tranquil Lough MacNean and has views of the local mountains. Rushin House opens from March to October.

This was our first trip out in the 2011 season. We booked this site a couple of months in advance based on a recommendation we received from a friend. We reserved a hardstand caravan pitch with awning for 8 nights at £24 per night. The person on the telephone sounded friendly and asked us to pay an £80 deposit at time of booking. We were informed that we could cancel with full refund up to 7 days prior to arrival.

We arrived at Belcoo at approximately 5pm on a Saturday evening. After turning right in the centre of the village we travelled a few miles until we reached St. Patrick’s Holy Well. Immediately after we saw the sign for Rushin House Caravan Park and we turned left off the B-road and down the single lane that took us up to the farm-house reception.

I parked up and knocked on the door and was met by a young girl who was very pleasant. She asked me if I wanted to settle the bill now or at departure. I opted for departure. She didn’t give me a list of rules and she didn’t tell me what I must and must not do. Instead she told me that we could choose any available site and that showers were included free. She also gave me a code for free wi-fi.

Rushin House is a relatively new, small caravan park overlooking a beautiful lough. This is its fifth season since opening. The tent area is sited right next to the lough shore with the caravans located up on a grassy bank behind them.

Most sites have a fantastic view of the lough. There are 38 touring caravan sites in total: 24 on a lower level and a further 14 on an upper level.

The park provided for caravans, motorhomes and tents.

The entire park has got a “new” feel about it as everything is in such pristine condition.

The sites are interconnected with tarmac roads. Each pitch has its own hardstand, an electric hookup, waste water drainage and a tap for fresh water (both located at the corner of the hardstand). If you have a longish waste pipe you should be able to leave the wastemaster at home.

Wi-fi

Free Wi-fi is provided on-site. I checked out the speed of the connection and I was able to get a surprisingly good download speed at 8mb/s. Sometimes it was a lot slower than this, perhaps due to other people on the site using it. Still this was very impressive.

The site encouraged recycling. There were bins for different types of waste e.g. paper. They even had a compost bin.

A single modern building houses toilets, showers, kitchen and laundry room.

Two of the shower rooms were quite small while the third was almost twice the size of the others. As it ran next to the exterior wall it also benefited from a windowsill that ran the length of the shower room. This was very useful for setting shoes, shampoo and shower gel on.
The water from the showers was fairly hot – absolutely perfect temperature for me but maybe a little too hot for young children. There was no temperature control. A button had to be pushed every 10 seconds or so to keep the flow constant. I suppose this is one of the downsides of free showers.

I am reliably informed that the female toilets and showers had a similar layout to the male (minus the urinals). The female toilets had a coin-operated hairdryer.

A single Disabled / Parent and Child shower room with toilet was also available. This was a spacious room with baby changing station, toilet, shower with temperature and flow control and disabled facilities.

The number of showers and toilets in the building seemed more than adequate for the number of touring spaces on the campsite.

There was also an iron that ran on 50 pence pieces and a Miele hoover. We borrowed the hoover to clean our caravan on our last day and my wife informs me it was excellent.

Although I did not use the kitchen, it looked well equipped. As well as sinks, washing up liquid and sponges there was a microwave and recycling bins for aluminum cans, tins, plastic, newspapers etc.

A television was also available and lots of tourist leaflets to help you plan your holiday. On a noticeboard in the entrance of the toilet block there was a tourist information sheet which listed the nearest hospital and doctors and numbers to call in an emergency etc.

The toilet block was closed for cleaning at lunchtime but guests were still able to use the disabled / parent and child room.

A Chemical Disposal Point was available to empty the caravan’s cassette toilet.

There was a children’s play area in the park, an all weather pitch (for football etc), a boule pitch and an outdoor Table Tennis Table.

A short walk (tarmac path) alongside the lough shore meant that park visitors could get right down beside the waters edge and enjoy the breathtaking scenery.

There were a couple of jetties accessible from the walk. One, just below the caravan pitches allowed for the launch of a boat, dingy or canoe while the other which was a little further along was ideal for fishing from.

There seemed to be plenty of fish in the lough as a family were reeling them in while I watched on.

There is no shop in the caravan park. The nearest shop is approximately half a mile away on the road back into Belcoo. The nearest takeaway is just across the border in a small village called Black Lion which is a couple of miles from the caravan park. Most shops in Black Lion take Sterling as well as Euro.

Conclusion
Rushin House is a modern, clean, friendly, family run caravan park that is well worth a visit. It has panoramic views over Lough MacNean. The facilities are excellent. We would highly recommend this caravan park.